The co-founder of Wikipedia, Jimmy Wales has launched a new ad-free social networking site to give a tough time to Facebook and Twitter. WT:Social is a re-branded version of news focused site WIKITRIBUNE, which was launched in 2017 for evidence-based journalism.
In the era of making money by spreading falls news on social media networks, the all-new WT:Social is an ad-free news-focused social network. WT:Social does not rely on algorithms to populate the top stories. The top story would be the most recent one rather than the post with most likes or shares.
It is a great initiative but it would not come for free, WT:Social relies on users’ donations and since its release in October it has received donations from more than 200 individuals. Wales is hopeful as he believes that the new generation of consumers will pay for valuable content. He pointed out Netflix and Spotify as an example.
WT:Social is expecting to get €12 per month, or €90 per year from every individual consumer to fund it. “The business model of social media companies, of pure advertising, is problematic,” Wales said in the interview with Financial Times. He further said that WT:Social has no connection with Wikipedia but he took the idea of business model from there, as Wikipedia also relies on donation for a small section of users.
The website is performing very well and it has crossed 200,000 members today. In his tweet, Wales expressed his feeling about this great progress,
https://t.co/Uk7PUE8GV2 just passed 200,000 members while I was having dinner with @carolecadwalla, @iRowan , @chrisinsilico , @RanaForoohar , @jamiesusskind and others on the general topic of what’s gone wrong with social media and the world in general.
— Jimmy Wales (@jimmy_wales) November 18, 2019
Jimmy Wales is hopeful that his social networking site will cross hundreds of millions of users. “It won’t be massively profitable but it will be sustainable,” Wales added, “The Company only has a handful of staff, including developers and a community manager.”
